I suppose the idea of traits of success is trendy. Unfortunately, it also raises suspicion, as if someone has figured out the exact formula of a successful church. My main contention is that God often works well outside of our well established patterns. So when I read a sales pitch of the "12" traits that your church can "own" (p.14) to become irresistible - you can understand the concerns that rumble deep inside me. Consider also that many of the people I've ministered to came out of that carnage of churches that followed trends instead of the Holy Spirit.

Not that these "12" traits are bad or wrong. I'm sure they work fine for people who love process. In fact most of them are great starting points for reflecting on the health of your community. I appreciate the God-ward and outward focus they bring. But there is a theological danger in thinking a process produces results when what you are talking about is something as organic as a church. Maybe I'd be more comfortable if Cordeiro simply called these "12" emphases that he's found helped him as a church planter. Then I'd probably at least be interested in reading through his experiences and see what wisdom I could glean to help me in my own efforts to build church. If you can look past the "12 practical steps" approach, there is some value in hearing Cordeiro's pastoral experience and his passion for a healthy church. ( )

If you know much about the career of Wayne Cordeiro, you already know that this book is going to be inspirational and of practical value. Cordeiro really delivers. He writes from first hand experience. Your own gifts may be very different from Cordeiro's. THe circumstances of your life may also be very different from the circumstances of Cordeiro's life out of which this book grows. None of those differences will cloud the clarity with which Cordeiro paints the story of planting and growing churches that have God's blessing and power behind them. While the most obvious target audience for this book is a person who has a calling as a church planter or church leader, it is of great potential value to anyone who cares about what happens in the churches of this country or anywhere in the world. The book is not as exciting as hearing Cordeiro speak in person, but it is close to that. I recommend it.

Short, easy-to-read, this book takes us through 12 traits of a church that is irresistible. And the point the author tries to make is not just being irresistible to people, but being irresistible to heaven. The traits that make a church irresistible include the following:
-Hungering for the presence of God
-Remembering who she is
-Living heart first
-Connecting everything to a soul - love the quote: "in the end what matters most is souls that have been redeemed". That really is the bottom line.
-Practicing gratefulness
-Always learning
-Promoting healthy relationships
-Promoting spiritual self-feeding - liked the correlation between physical and spiritual feeding. As an adult, if we are hungry, we feed ourselves. We don't expect others to do it for us. The same goes spiritually. Just because we don't feel we are getting fed at a church is not reason to leave. We need to be able to feed ourselves spiritually.
-Choosing to love
-Taking risks
-Humbling itself
-Having a plan - this is good; not just doing the same things over and over again just because we've always done it this way. Having a reason/plan for what you do.

*I received this book from the publisher to review as part of Librarything.com's Early Reviewers program. ( )

Books on the essential traits of a church are legion these days. Many successful pastors have written books that reveal the "secrets" of their success. The Irresistible Church by Wayne Cordeiro falls in the same genre of these others. Like most of the other books of this type, there are some helpful nuggets of truth along the way that can inspire you to grow in your faith and build up the church. In the midst of those nuggets are tons of stories about what worked at that particular church with the obligatory caveat that "what worked here may bot work in your situation."

The twelve traits that Cordeiro lists are:
1. Hungers for the presence of God
2. Remembers who she is
3. Lives heart first
4. Practices gratefulness
5. Promotes healthy relationships
6. Is always learning
7. Promotes spiritual self-feeding
8. Connects everything to a soul
9. Chooses to love
10. Takes risks
11. Humbles itself
12. Has a plan

As one can see from this list, most of these traits apply equally to individuals as they do to the church. In fact, the discussion on some of them focus more on the individual than the church. Therefore, Cordeiro could just have easily entitled his book "The Irresistible Believer" or something to that effect.

The book is quite easy to read and flows quickly. The chapters are short and provide plenty of stories to keep the reader's interest.

The biggest issue I have with the book is the premise for the twelve traits. In the introduction, Cordeiro writes, "This book is about a church that heaven can't help but be deeply involved with, a church that God can't help but bless and use for His eternal purposes" (11). There seems to be a serious theological problem with this premise. Does God depend on our behavior or actions as a church to choose whether or not to use a church for his purposes? God used Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish his eternal purposes, yet Babylon was less than holy. Can we ever force God to do something? Biblically, the answer to this question is a resounding, "No!" I think I understand Cordeiro's heart in this statement, but one must be much more careful in choosing language about God lest he say something about God that is patently untrue. I fear that Cordeiro has been less than careful in this situation.

Overall, this is a decent read, but I would not necessarily go out and buy the book with the hopes of finding something original or groundbreaking. ( )

Wayne Cordeiro's, The Irresistible Church falls into the growing category of self help books for churches. He is another name in a list of mega-church pastors who have decided to write down their knowledge and keys for success and like most books in the category The Irresistible Church is resistible.
Cordeiro breaks the success of a church in 12 traits and spends a handful of pages on each trait but most traits boild down to "the Holy Spirit". Half way through the book I realized Cordeiro wasn't defining the Irresistible Church he was defining the church. This created the implication that you can have a church that doesn't "hunger for the presence of God." Without hungering for the presence of God you don't have a church must less an irresistible church.
To make matters worse Cordeiro skips over what makes a church truly a church and truly irresistible; (from the Belgic Confession article 29) "The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head. By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church-- and no one ought to be separated from it."
Maybe this is an instance where the author stepped over a dollar to pick up a dime. A pastor's reading time would be much better spent studying scripture, improving preaching or meditating on the sacraments then reading what the end results of those actions will bring. While his 12 traits are much easier to grasp than those in the marks of the church in the Belgic Confession his traits are just traits and not limited to the church nor indicative of the church. It's a focus book that any organization can use as an outline but it won't transform a club or business into a church.

Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided at no cost through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer’s program. ( )